We Must Change

What has happened to our world? Life for the average Western working person is mundane, repetitive, and only purposeful for the act of acquiring money and using that to obtain things. Things that lack any real value, fill no void and only lead to the act of purchasing and consuming more things until one is in a state of consumer mania. That is the current predicament we find ourselves placed in. The high human population is not an issue; this planet can host billions and billions of people. It is the large consumption found in the culture of the West that is causing distress on ourselves, other beings, our environment and the planet. Twelve percent of the world’s population lives in North America and Western Europe and accounts for more than sixty percent of private consumption spending, but a third of humanity who live in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa account for only 3.2 percent. It is evident to anyone who has the compassion to invest their mind into this area of knowledge that the current culture of the majority of Western people just cannot continue if we wish to exist seventy years from now. It has to change. To do this, I advise you look within and question if you are who you want to be. If your existence in this time of history projects the meaning you strongly wish to live and leave when you venture out of this dream of life. As the great Rumi once said,

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”

Changing Ourselves

Many of us are always seeking to change ourselves for the supposed better. But so often, the better we’re looking for is regarding our society and cultures current ideals. We cut our hair, wear specific clothing, speak a certain way, consume more, wear makeup, add or lose weight, etc. To impress others, we transform ourselves into clear reflections of our society and culture’s ideals, so that we are deemed what is considered normal. Causing us to lose sight of the happy person we once were, who we now miss. We change to become models, representatives of standards unnatural to how we truly wish to feel, look and live. Selling ourselves to “normalities”, so that Chloe wants breast implants and a new dress every Tuesday, as Jacob lifts weights and dresses in concern to what his peers deem attractive so that he is accepted and given an identity. This change is unhealthy, unnatural, and results in misery, anxiety and often at times, suicide. The change I speak of that is necessary for your happiness and health must come from you. This will transform not only yourself but the environment around you for the better.

Our current culture here in the West of infecting the youth with toxic habits and useless desires that rob them of a future of love will result in destructive lifestyles that are now evident in this period. Planet earth and its inhabitants are feeling the pressure, a world where not only are the poor miserable but so are the rich. The carbon dioxide levels in our atmosphere surpassed 402 parts per million in 2014, the most it has ever been in at least the last 800,000 years. Annually, 8.8 million metric tonnes of plastic waste is dumped into the ocean as the world’s population density increases. Scientists say marine debris levels could reach up to 155 million metric tonnes (341.7 billion pounds) by 2025. Logging and other forms of forest-clearing actions resulted in an estimated loss of 13 million hectares of land every year between 2000 and 2010. In 2015, the United Nations world water development reported a possible 40% shortfall of water supply by the year 2030, and the need to produce 60% food from now to feed the world’s rapidly growing population by the year 2050. Clearly, this planet cannot sustain this system. We are in dire need of more people who are willing to stand up for themselves and give out a reaching hand for those who cannot, so we can lift this beautiful world up and out of the pit of madness and chaos and hold it high above as a loving beacon of light. Lit to shine throughout the universe expressing the notion that finally, the human species has got it right.

Our Intelligence

Has it ever occurred to you how astonishing our intelligence is, and the creations we’ve implemented into this world? It took the Apollo missions about three days to reach the moon, and just eight hours and thirty-five minutes for the New Horizons probe. We have created transportation technology such as cars, planes, and spaceships. We have enhanced our ability to spread information to one another around the world by inventing satellites, phones, computers and the internet. We build and construct houses, towers, bridges, skyscrapers that would express the intricacy of the modern human mind. We have relinquished many medical problems and provide products to help the human race fight against the nature of sickness through the use of bio-related technology. And yet, here we are in a world torn by primitive ways of investing our minds into unhealthy habits, it is an incongruous place to exist in. Why have we not created technology to provide the basic human needs for every individual? Why have we not turned our creativity and intelligence to the sun, to think of ways to obtain the free energy so that we can fuel our needs for the health of the planet? Neil De Grasse Tyson stated a fact about the sun and the solar power it produces through the winds and the waves; that is just mind boggling when you put into consideration our current energy sources. Neil said;
“There is another source of clean, renewable energy available all over the world. The winds themselves are solar-powered because our Sun drives the wind and waves. Unlike solar collectors, wind farms take up insufficient land. If they are offshore, where the winds are strongest, it takes up no land at all. If we can tap even 1% of the winds’ power, we would have enough energy to run our civilisation.”
More solar energy falls on Earth in one hour than all of the energy our entire civilisation uses in a year. If we could harness even a small amount of the available solar and wind power, we could take care of all of our energy needs forever without adding any carbon to the atmosphere.”

What We Must Do

We are a species with both of our feet in the grave, while our hands are reaching high into the sky of unnecessary desires. We need to re-evaluate where we place our minds, and what sort of a world we’d like to leave for our children to live in. Should it be a world where they can focus their energy on doing what they love without the worry of having to feed themselves the basic needs for survival and face becoming addicted to misrepresented items, products and places of false happiness? Or should they be left with the technology that keeps them entertained, while they starve to death and fight amongst one another for the last job so that they can eat, purchase more useless products and keep up with their society? That is where we are heading. Half of the human population have already been swallowed up by the consequences of this madness, and we, the minority still have the privilege of anticipating an apocalypse, because we live in such isolated bubbles filled with rubbish information from garbage sources.

It isn’t an easy task to fix this mess, and shouldn’t be. Even if we were to abolish the system of money and produce sufficient needs for every individual through our advancement in technology, the psychology, culture and attitude of many would remain. The foolishness of the human race would still linger, found in the survival of religion, racism, ego, consumer mania, immaturity, ignorance, belief in one’s culture and so forth. This proves that where the most important and significant change is found, is in the revolution of the mind.